ONE WOMAN'S JOURNEY THE UNOFFICIAL BLOG: I WAS SO EMOTIONAL

Why Aussie icon Olivia Newton-John had to come home

WHO
24 Feb 2020

Australian singer-actress Olivia NewtonJohn, 71, is looking forward to performing at Fire Fight Australia on Feb. 16.

From her home on the other side of the world, Olivia Newton-John watched aghast as this season’s deadly fires destroyed huge chunks of her homeland. “I felt sick,” the 71-year-old singer-actress tells WHO of learning of the Australian bushfires from California. “I couldn’t watch it, in fact, because I was so emotional.”

News of this season’s devastating fires, which killed 33 people, razed more than 2000 homes and wiped out millions of our native fauna, was “too intense”, she says. “I felt so sad hearing about people losing their homes and the animals that couldn’t get away and had no way of knowing what was going on. It really broke my heart.”
She wanted to do something – anything – but didn’t know where to start. “It’s a weird feeling,” Newton-John concedes. “You feel helpless.” Then she received a message from Barry Gibb, of the Bee Gees, who wanted to know whether a relief concert was being planned. “It was quite incredible how the fires touched people everywhere, she says. She called concert promoter Paul Dainty and slowly the Fire Fight Australia concert started taking shape.

The sold-out concert, which will be broadcast live on Channel Seven, stars performers such as Queen + Adam Lambert, Alice Cooper, Michael Bublé, k.d. lang, Amy Shark and Conrad Sewell.

Newton-John will introduce the concert and perform with her old tour buddy John Farnham. “We’ll be singing ‘Two Strong Hearts’,” Newton-John says. “We love working together. This will be a wonderful opportunity to sing together with my mate. And the song is about our hearts beating together. We are all one, so in times like these, when people come together, it’s very special.”

As well as performing at the concert, the Xanadu star is in Australia to support her daughter Chloe Lattanzi in this year’s Dancing With the Stars. “I’m so proud of her,” she gushes about Chloe.

Newton-John is a national treasure. For six decades, the beloved entertainer’s hit songs and movies have been stitched into our musical fabric. Who doesn’t know at least one song from the movie Grease? And fans have been with the star every step of the way as she battles stage-four breast cancer.

Recently, the ‘Physical’ singer revealed the amazing news her tumours are shrinking. Now, Newton-John says she’s feeling positive about her health. “I’m doing great,” the founding patron of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Institute enthuses. “Everything is going in the right direction – which is down. I’m feeling really well and strong and just grateful for every day.”

Starting out as a singer in Australia, then England, before having hits in the US, Newton-John’s life changed forever when she became Sandy in 1978’s Grease, opposite John Travolta. Newton-John’s incredible life was portrayed in Seven’s 2018 miniseries, Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted To You, with her friend Delta Goodrem as Olivia playing Sandy. Was it weird watching herself in a TV drama? “It is odd seeing your life on screen,” she admits. “I’ve watched bits and bobs and I didn’t watch it for months. I wasn’t really involved in it, but they did a pretty good job and she [Delta] was wonderful. “I feel very well loved [by the public] and it’s such a wonderful feeling. I’ve had a lot of support over the last few years and I’m humbled, really. It’s lovely.”

By Stephen Downie

Fire Fight Australia airs live Sun., Feb. 16, from 1pm on Channel Seven